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Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
Queensland shows the way by moving against cross-border land tax minimisers
Michael Pascoe The New Daily (No paywall)It’s 44 years since Joh Bjelke-Petersen dropped death duties in Queensland, starting a quick race to the bottom by other states and destroying a valuable plank in our tax system. But now Queensland is going a small way towards making amends by opening the door for states to rationally calculate and collect land tax on a national basis – if they’re smart enough to seize the opportunity. The usual suspects in the property industry are already screaming blue murder – alleging the end of rental properties in Queensland, claiming it’s evil double taxation, forecasting the earth will split asunder and issue forth toads and serpents and so on. What they fear is that other states might know a good idea when they see one and follow suit – if they are not politically owned by the landlord class. At present, it is possible for property investors to minimise or totally avoid paying land tax by spreading their portfolio around different states.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/09/19/queensland-land-ta…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government, Tax.Ontario’s Growth Plan is reducing housing affordability
Frank Clayton The Conversation (No paywall)Few Ontario residents know how land use planning regulation shapes their physical environment, including where new housing is built, the size and type of buildings, and housing density. As a result, most people are only interested in the topic when a new housing project is proposed near their homes. In reality, planning regulation has far-reaching influence on our lives, and especially on the housing crisis. It’s a primary reason for the high housing prices and rents in the Greater Golden Horseshoe — a massive region that is centred on Toronto and spans Southern Ontario. Because of this, land use planning impacts certain parts of the population more than others, including the middle class, first-time house buyers, renters, immigrants and lower-income residents. Although few pay attention to it, the development, regulation and impact of land use planning has more to do with the average person than they realize. A sweeping reform could reduce housing and rent prices, at no cost to the public purse.
https://theconversation.com/ontarios-growth-plan-is-reducing-hou…
# International, Planning and development.Uni dorms, granny flats and Airbnb taxes: Tackling Qld’s housing crunch
Matt Dennien The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Tapping into unused student accommodation, granny flat rentals, and a statewide tax on Airbnbs. These are among just some moves now under way, or up for discussion, to tackle Queensland’s housing crunch. Calls for action from across property and social service groups reached a coordinated peak this week, delivering an “urgent” roundtable convened by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Friday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/uni-dorms-granny-flat…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Local Government, State Government.Dramatic rethink of aged care needed as operators stare down $9.3b black hole
Clay Lucas The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)With older Australians demanding more at-home care and nursing homes costing billions more each year to run, experts say aged care needs a dramatic overhaul.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/dramatic-rethink-of-age…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.Crowded house(s): Can New Zealand’s planning reforms show Sydney the way?
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)New Zealand has given us Crowded House, Russell Crowe and pavlova – could it now deliver us an elegant solution to the housing affordability crisis? The Kiwi government has laid down the gauntlet to the country’s five biggest cities with two major pieces of urban planning law designed to boost density.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/crowded-house-s-can-new-zeal…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Planning and development, State Government.‘Difficult trade-offs’: Sydney neighbourhoods with the most heritage homes
Nigel Gladstone and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A high concentration of heritage-protected homes along socioeconomic lines may lead to inequitable outcomes for Sydney, experts warn, as Herald analysis shows inner-city councils have more heritage listings than elsewhere. The uneven recognition risks the loss of heritage in poorer parts of Sydney while maintaining and increasing the value of properties in affluent pockets, experts said. Far-flung areas are almost bereft of any heritage listed homes and some western Sydney councils have no local conservation areas at all.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/difficult-trade-offs-sydney…
# NSW, Heritage listings, Housing market, Local Government, Sydney.The plan for 483 apartments next to a cathedral in historic Sydney district
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A plan to replace a disused pharmaceutical factory with 483 rental apartments in Harris Park faces opposition from the custodians of the suburb’s early-colonial historic district, and the thriving Lebanese Maronite community at the adjoining cathedral. ... Pacific Community Housing director Matthew Daniel, who partnered with the owner to develop the concept, said the developers had consulted extensively with the community and the plans for up to eight storeys were already scaled back from an original proposal for 36 storeys.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-plan-for-483-apartments-…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Heritage listings, Local Government, State Government.Filtering as a source of low-income housing in Australia: conceptualisation and testing
Christian Nygaard, Ryan van den Nouwelant, Stephen Glackin, Chris Martin and Alistair Sisson AHURI (No paywall)Filtering is a market-based process whereby the supply of new, higher quality dwellings for higher- and middle-income households may also lead to additional supply of dwellings for lower income households. As properties age and their perceived quality drops, over time they move down the economic hierarchy through successively lower market segments or sub-markets, becoming a supply of ‘naturally occurring affordable housing’. ... This study investigated how filtering contributes to market-provided low-income housing in Australia. It critiques the conceptualisation of filtering as a source of housing for low-income households, tests for the presence of filtering dynamics in housing markets (using Melbourne and Sydney as case studies) and considers policy options for enhancing (if so desired) filtering as a policy tool.
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market.